Thursday, 21 November 2013

After a horrific breakup with her long time boyfriend, Brooklyn Caldwell is completely disenchanted with the notion of mingling with the opposite sex. Damon Williams had been everything she thought she wanted…until he wasn’t.

In an attempt to escape her heartbreaking past, Brooklyn seeks refuge in bustling Washington DC where she folds into the fast paced society unnoticed…until she meets a young entrepreneur, Logan Colton.

Brooklyn is surprised to find that while she has been successful in keeping the opposite sex at bay, somehow she is defenseless against Logan’s confidence and charm—and it doesn’t hurt that he is absurdly beautiful. While thrilled with Logan’s candor, Brooklyn hesitates, as she can’t seem to move past the heartache that she suffered at the hands of Damon.

As much as Logan didn’t plan on pursuing her, he is drawn to Brooklyn’s muted beauty and her witty persona. For all his success, Logan is ensnared in the coveted world of unequivocal wealth and power, but behind closed doors is taunted by demons and an undeniable need to atone for a monumental mistake.

As the two embark on a tumultuous obstacle course saturated with unknown twists and turns, Brooklyn is left to question whether she can endure the journey ahead.

Excerpt

"I couldn’t breathe. I saw her below me. I couldn’t make out her face, but I knew she was someone close. Something was wrapped around her ankles, I thrust myself deeper into the darkness. The salty red water was all around me. Claps of thunder rang in my ears, but I plunged further into the bottomless abyss. Intense fear gripped my heart valve so tightly I thought it would burst, but I knew she needed me."

About the Author

S.C. Ellington is an up and coming author who enjoys expressing her creativity through frequently writing adult, contemporary romance novels that readers can relate to, but more importantly, enjoy.

Aside from writing, Ellington enjoys curling up with her e-reader and absorbing herself in novels loaded with emotion, desire, and passion. She also likes to spend sunny, wistful afternoons, in her hammock thinking up new ideas for great stories.

Ellington currently resides on the west coast with her beautiful family and loving friends.

Sunday, 17 November 2013

Hi Guys & Girls *waves* I brought you here today for TWO reasons. One: my debut novel just launched and I want to give some cool stuff away. Two: I want to talk to you about my journey as a author getting to to where I am today.

We're going to start with with reason two first though!

As a teenager, I wrote two books. I don't know if everyone here will remember Point Horror books, but that was mainly what I read back in those days and I wanted to write my own. So I did. My first book was called The Angel of Death. It was about a girl who babysat for the town's children but she also murdered them. A year later at the tender age of 16 I wrote another one, Skye's Secret - to be honest, I don't remember what this one was about. It was my dream to be a published author one day.

It wasn't until I was 29 that I actually sat down with my laptop to write my book. It was October 2012 and I had just had an operation on my spine. I was home all day with nothing much to do because I couldn't move about too well. The only thing I was really doing was reading and reviewing.

Friends kept encouraging to me to write my book. You see, I'd been playing with an idea about a year previously but as I have suffered with low self-esteem, I hadn't actually done anything about this idea. My friend in Brazil, Kira Saito, kept telling me I could do it and so one day I took the plunge. I started writing long-hand in a notebook. I came up with character profiles and a basic synopsis.

I had some pretty basic stuff, nothing fleshed out, but I couldn't actually sit and plan where the book should go. I know a lot of authors have Pinterest boards and they have notice boards at home covered in things to help their creative process but for some reason, I just couldn't do that stuff. Once I sat down at my laptop, the words just kept flowing and any time I tried to plan anything, I would find myself stalled and unable to continue. So I just went with it and kept writing what was in my head. Every author has a different process, no two of us would tell you we do things identically.

I wrote in October and November, took December off for Christmas then picked up where I left off in January 2013. I wrote some more in February and then finished by the end of the month. That was when I read it all back to myself to see if I liked it. I sort of donned my 'reviewer' cap and picked up on a few things I wanted to change.

I had a select group of BETA readers who I sent chapters to here and there to see what they thought of what I had so far. But I didn't have an editor. My auntie Julie had always wanted to be an editor, so I asked her if she would do me the honour of editing Stolen. Thankfully, she agreed. She printed off my manuscript, edited it and sent it to me via snail mail. I put it in a ring-binder, got myself some red arrow stickers and went through, sticking one wherever something needed changing.

At this point, I was intent on self-publishing. I mentioned my low self-esteem before, well it was fear of rejection that made me chicken out of submitting to publishers. However, as you can see, I am published by Limitless Publishing - so something obviously changed, but what? Well, I have a few friends that are published by LP and they convinced me to submit, what was the harm? If the answer was no, I would dust myself off and self-publish, right?! I am so glad I listened to the girls otherwise I wouldn't be where I am today.

I actually submitted my MS to two publishers and within a day of each other, they BOTH offered me contracts.

So, in short: I wrote a book, had jitters about publishers - then I submitted and fell lucky in the fact that they both wanted it. I signed with Limitless Publishing on August 10th 2013 and not long after, I met my editor Kathryn Romeo. She's an amazing lady who helped me polish my MS until it gleamed. Then I got an email at the beginning of November, 13 months after I had started my journey, that email said 'we now have a complete manuscript'. Let me tell you, I would have jumped for joy if it wan't for the nerve damage in my leg. I saw the cover not long afterwards and let me say, I love LOVE my cover by 'Wicked By Design'. The last part of my journey came on November 14th in the form of actually being published. It tipped me over the edge and I was absolutely ecstatic. I couldn't stop shaking all day from a rush of adrenaline that came from happiness, but at the same time, fear. That fear was that it wouldn't sell well.

I never wrote this book with profit in mind. I wrote it to achieve my dream of being a published author by the age of 30. Having turned 30 in August, I can proudly say, that's one dream that has come true.

What would I say to aspiring authors? Go and write your book! Take your idea and run with it. Whether you plan it out meticulously or whether you just let it flow from your fingers - just DO IT! I did and look at where I am now. I am finally a published author.

If you are an aspiring author who, much like me, is scared of rejection, the only advice I can give to you is: don't do what I did. Yes, I landed lucky but I am not a cat and when thrown, I don't always land on my feet.

I may make it sound like I had it easy and in some ways, I very much did. But whether it was luck or fate, something out there was shining down on me that day when LP said they wanted to publish my book. But for any of you who are currently writing or even just have an idea for a book, I would say to seek out publication. Go to the publishing houses, have the nerve to dream big and big things happen. I know that now I am over the first hurdle, I will actively seek publication for any more novels I write. I am currently working on Freed (Freedom of Souls #2) which will be published by LP, but who knows what the future holds for my other WIP, Nothing Like The First Time. It may get self-published, it may get published by a house. All I know is, I will never stop writing now because now that I have been bitten by the bug, I intend to keep at it. You should do the same thing. I know that so many people write and never publish. I know that I have achieved something that many may not. But I would actively encourage anyone who has the heart to write to have the courage to submit it to publishers far and wide. You're probably thinking it's easy for me to say. But really, I got lucky. In this business, it's about writing the story your way and then submitting it to publishers and waiting for that all important yes. You might get rejected by 10, 20, maybe even 300 of them, but it only takes that ONE to say yes. You don't have to listen, but that's my advice.

Now, here's some info about Stolen for you.... the giveaway is coming soon, I promise.... But first, the cover:

Roshanna O'Dare wakes up in her own home in shock when she discovers part of her memory is missing and her parents are dead…

With no clues of any kind as to what happened to her parents, and no other close family, Roshanna must move to Texas, Austin, to live with her last living relative, Uncle Joe after the funeral. But this means leaving her best friend, Marissa Mason behind.

That’s when she meets Bodhi Vincent, her uncle’s chauffeur, who seems to understand Roshanna in a way no one else has…

Bodhi is her rock after the death of her parents and the longer she stays with her uncle, the closer they become.

But before moving away, Roshanna was confronted with a shocking secret that Marissa had kept from her, a secret that changes how she sees life and the people in it—Marissa is a pure soul and her foster parents are soul drainers who need her pure energy to survive.

More shockingly, her parents’ souls were stolen by their murderer.

When Roshanna and Bodhi try and track down Marissa’s father, Leith Mason, in order to retrieve her parents’ souls back, they find themselves held hostage at gunpoint.

Will Roshanna and Bodhi survive? Will she ever find her parents souls? Or will their souls be the next ones to be taken?

Now you've read the synopsis, hopefully you will add it to your TBR on Goodreads (which I made easy by linking the title above).

And now for the other reason I brought you here, THE GIVEAWAY!! *claps hands*

Here are some pictures of what you stand to win: (click on image to enlarge)

Pack includes: Acrylic Block with signed cover, Mouse Mat with signed cover, Kindle Fire Case (not HD) with signed cover, Character Name/Book Title Bracelets, Replica of Roshanna's Amulet, Replica of Bodhi's Necklace, Stickers, Phone Charms and Metal Bookmarks. You will win 3 phone charms & 3 bookmarks, one in each style.

Roshanna O'Dare wakes up in her own home in shock when she discovers part of her memory is missing and her parents are dead…

With no clues of any kind as to what happened to her parents, and no other close family, Roshanna must move to Texas, Austin, to live with her last living relative, Uncle Joe after the funeral. But this means leaving her best friend, Marissa Mason behind.

That’s when she meets Bodhi Vincent, her uncle’s chauffeur, who seems to understand Roshanna in a way no one else has…

Bodhi is her rock after the death of her parents and the longer she stays with her uncle, the closer they become.

But before moving away, Roshanna was confronted with a shocking secret that Marissa had kept from her, a secret that changes how she sees life and the people in it—Marissa is a pure soul and her foster parents are soul drainers who need her pure energy to survive.

More shockingly, her parents’ souls were stolen by their murderer.

When Roshanna and Bodhi try and track down Marissa’s father, Leith Mason, in order to retrieve her parents’ souls back, they find themselves held hostage at gunpoint.

Will Roshanna and Bodhi survive? Will she ever find her parents souls? Or will their souls be the next ones to be taken?

Wednesday, 6 November 2013

Hi Guys & Girls! *waves* I am here today to bring you a hell of a special cover to me. This is MY book cover for my debut novel.

Coming November 2013…

Roshanna
O'Dare wakes up in her own home in shock when she discovers part of her memory
is missing and her parents are dead…

With no clues of any kind as to
what happened to her parents, and no other close family, Roshanna must move to
Texas, Austin, to live with her last living relative, Uncle Joe after the
funeral. But this means leaving her best friend, Marissa Mason behind.

That’s
when she meets Bodhi Vincent, her uncle’s chauffeur, who seems to understand
Roshanna in a way no one else has…

Bodhi is her rock after the death
of her parents and the longer she stays with her uncle, the closer they become.

But before moving away, Roshanna
was confronted with a shocking secret that Marissa had kept from her, a secret
that changes how she sees life and the people in it—Marissa is a pure soul and
her foster parents are soul drainers who need her pure energy to survive.

More
shockingly, her parents’ souls were stolen by their murderer.

When Roshanna and Bodhi try and
track down Marissa’s father, Leith Mason, in order to retrieve her parents’
souls back, they find themselves held hostage at gunpoint.

Will Roshanna and Bodhi survive?
Will she ever find her parents souls? Or will their souls be the next ones to
be taken?

I live in the UK and am an avid bookworm; I have been since I read things
like Black Beauty, What Katy Did and The Hobbit as a child. My first real
memories of reading are the summers I used to lie on my bed and re-read What
Katy Did and What Katy Did Next.

Over the years I have come to realise that I am a bit OCD about books. They
have to be in perfect condition without the slightest bit of damage.

I am a book reviewer and have been for the last 2 years.

The idea for Stolen came to me one day but I never thought I’d actually
write it let alone publish it. If it wasn’t for my author friend Kira Saito,
the idea would still be stuck in my head not on paper. But constant love and
support from Kira is why you are now able to read Stolen.

Stolen is my first novel but now that I've written one, I know I need to write more. There will be one sequel, called Freed which will be from
Bodhi’s POV. This will be set a few months on.

Then, the plan is for me to write either NA or Adult Contemporary Romances. I have a big crush on Lady Antebellum’s music at the moment and their songs
have inspired a few book ideas.

Thank you all for coming by my very own cover reveal. I hope you like the cover and like the sound of the book. Please add it to your Goodreads TBR and please feel free to comment below telling me what you think of the cover.

"Carter Montgomery spent most of his life blending in, and he liked it that way. It was always better to be seen, not heard. And while a theatric streak and friendly demeanor might have fooled most people, he knew the truth—he was the shy one. The quiet kid most people forgot about. Some might have considered that a bad thing, but those people all wanted to be in the spotlight.

The only place Carter didn’t mind attention was on stage, with The Hellions. Once content in his comfort zone in Seattle, Washington, he only knew three things: confrontation was to be avoided, keeping the peace was priority, and the moment he lost Kate Parker to Professor Ryan Campbell, he had no clue what to do with his life. Playing gigs, working at Pike Place Market, and watching BBC after the love of his life sailed off into the sunset just wasn’t going to cut it anymore.

Desperate to escape his rut, he takes a cue from Kate and chooses a random place to relocate—a small island across the country, where no one knows his name and memories of unrequited love aren’t found at every turn. Just when he thinks he’s found the perfect place to unwind and sink back into the shadows, in bursts Whitney Sinclair, a saucy firecracker who loves life and refuses to settle for second best. Full of contagious energy, she dares him to be brave, convincing him that it might finally be time to tell the world what he wants.

It might be time to make a declaration."

*I Hereby Award This Book 5 Wings!*

So for those of you who know me well, you will know I am a sucker for any book written by Rachael Wade. She writes a few different genres and manages to pull them all off... to say well, would be an understatement, so let's say extraordinarily. This woman has an amazing talent and thank goodness she is kind enough to share it with us. As an author just starting out on my own journey, I can honestly say that I admire Rachael and how much hard work she puts into her books. I aspire to be just like her, but if I can't manage it, I want to at least be one one-hundredth of the author she is. Now, if you don't know me well, you might think I'm just trying to kiss butt here, but let me assure you that is not the case. Rachael is one of my favourite authors and has been since I first read Amaranth, the first book in The Resistance Trilogy. However, what really got me to sit up and take notice of her was Preservation. She wrote a book about a young woman and her college professor, something a lot of people see as a taboo subject. I read it in one sitting because it was so compelling and I could not put it down until finishing it at 2am where I cried like a baby. If you haven't read it, you really should because it's the first book in the trilogy that Declaration rounds off so beautifully.

Where books one and two were about Kate and Ryan, this book is about one of the secondary characters, Kate's best friend, Carter Montgomery.

Carter did the one thing that he shouldn't have done. He fell in love with his best friend. Unfortunately Kate didn't reciprocate those feelings. This prompted Carter to make a change in his life and this story walks us through that change. First thing's first, he moved across the country. This completely upended his life in a good way, a great way, but you need to read the book for yourself to see what happened. You could choose to read this as a stand alone book or you can read the trilogy - but my suggestion would be to read Preservation, Reservation, Love and Relativity and then Declaration. That's the order I read them in.

As I said before, Rachael is an amazing author and this book, like the others that came before it, is an outstanding story. I felt a real connection with Carter and other characters. I love when I can not just read a book but fall head first into another life. There's emotional depth to the people and that is one of the things I love most about it. The people are real and tangible. They may only be fictional characters but Rachael breathed life into them. They made me laugh, they made me cry and most of all, they made me fall in love. It had been a while between reading the other books and this one, so although I knew of Carter before, I wasn't totally in love with the guy. However, this book took care of that. I fell in love with the little firecracker that is Whitney too!

I urge you all, if you haven't read these books, please do so. You don't know what you are missing!

Thank you Rachael for the chance to review this book. I am so happy with how the trilogy ended. You are a rock star.

Thank you all for coming by to read my review. Hope to see you here again soon!

Monday, 4 November 2013

Hi Guys & Girls! *waves* I am privileged to bring you the cover for TORN SOULS, book two in the Soul Ties series.

Without further ado...

3...

2...

1...

Now Available On Amazon!

Jack spends his life plugged
into a fantasy online world he shares with his friends. Now he faces his
hardest quest yet: leave home for college and live in the real world…

Jack’s fantasy crosses
into reality when he discovers his new girlfriend is better at
killing demons than he is. Only the ones she kills are real. And he’s not 100%
sure she’s human.

Soul-hunter Dahlia’s role in
the human world is to retrieve stolen souls from demons and return them to her
superiors. Mixing with humans is an annoying necessity…

However, when she meets Jack, she
can’t avoid her attraction to him, or explain the strange connection they
share. She is drawn away from her world into Jack’s, and makes a choice which
ties her to his world forever. But leaving her world behind isn’t as easy as
Dahlia thought.

When her old life catches up
with them, Dahlia and Jack are left facing a future they never imagined.

**Torn Souls is the second book
in the Soul Ties series and is the story of Jack and Dahlia. The book begins a
year before Soul Ties and also covers some events in Soul Ties from Jack’s and
Dahlia’s point of view. The continuation of the Soul Ties story will be in the
third book of the series.**

Lisa is an author of new adult romance and writes both paranormal and
contemporary, often with a side of snark.

In between running a business, looking after her family and writing,
Lisa sometimes finds spare time to do other things. This often involves
swapping her book worlds for gaming worlds. She even leaves the house
occasionally. Lisa loves all things from the Whedonverse and preferred vampires
before they sparkled.

She is currently working on a number of projects including the remaining
books in the Soul
Ties series and a sequel to her new adult contemporary
romance. Lisa is originally from the UK but moved to Australia in 2001 and
now lives in Perth in Western Australia with her husband, three children and
dog.

I Was Awarded...

I Was Given The Liebster Blog Award

Gothic Angel's Goodreads Shelf

About Me

My name is Keren. I am a 30 year old mom of 1. His name is Calum and he is 6.
Reading is pretty much in my blood and I have been reading since I knew what the written word was. I used to be the biggest Stephen King and Dean Koontz fan but have now broadened my horizons and my tastes encompass a lot of things. I have very eclectic taste in life in general. From the Gothic, to the more girly.
I am a big lover of Indie Authors such as Nancy Straight, Rachael Wade, Selene Chardou, Kate Laurens, Jo A Cattell and far too many others to name.
I have just signed a publishing contract with Limitless Publishing for a YA Paranormal Romance I have just finished writing called Stolen.